NASA tests space suits for manned asteroid missions (VIDEO)

NASA engineers are conducting underwater tests of a new space suit, as the agency prepares for ambitious manned missions to the Moon, Mars, and an asteroid. The suit was redesigned from the “pumpkin” outfit used in shuttle missions.

The modified suit will allow more mobility for future astronauts
and will also allow for more space in the Orion Multi-Purpose
Crew Vehicle, which is being built to become America’s next
manned spacecraft.

NASA has been eyeing to equip Orion’s crew with something less
bulky than the usual space suits.

Due to its size and movement limitations, the so-called
Extravehicular Mobility Unit - worn by astronauts during
spacewalks on the International Space Station (ISS) - was seen
unfit for deep space missions. Given that the Orion crew module
has just 8.9 cubic meters of space for four to six people on
board, NASA thought the pumpkin-orange Advanced Crew Escape
System (ACES) used by space shuttle astronauts could be more
suitable for the job.

An upgraded version of the suit has been designed, and is being
tested in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near the agency’s
Johnson Space Center in Houston. To imitate all the possible
mission scenarios, the lab has been using a giant pool with mock
installations, including full-scale models of the ISS.

NASA has released a video showing how the underwater
tests are done. The agency also used computer graphics to show
what the actual asteroid mining mission could look like.

Dustin Gohmert, crew survival systems manager at Johnson, says
that while the shell of the suit looks “very much the
same” as the orange suit used by shuttle astronauts, its
inside has been overhauled.

“We’re stepping back to our heritage to be able to use one
suit for multiple tasks,” Gohmert said, referring to the
long-running history of the pumpkin-orange suit, which evolved
from the early NASA spacesuit worn by the first US astronaut who
ventured outside a spaceship in 1965.